Monday, September 19, 2011

Welcome to our next challenge for the month of September! I am so excited to post this challenge as my super AWESOME Design Team have been thinking of ways to throw some twists in how we pick the winner. We thought it would be fun for you all out there to pick the winner! This challenge will end on the 29th of September , which is 2 weeks from today and you will all have a chance to vote for the winner and Top 5 projects for one whole day on the 30th of September before the new challenge is posted on the 1st of October.
The catch here is that everyone can only vote 1 time, but of course you can get everyone you know to vote for you! As it gets closer to the day I will remind you all, and we just cannot wait to see who you will pick!

So on to our September 15th challenge.

Journalling Criteria: This time you need to journal 2 lines directly on your photo. You can write on your photo, you can print your writing on your photo, you can use journalling strips on your photo etc. There is no theme this time, just a journalling technique criteria.

You must also use this sketch.

Guest Designers

Stacy Cohen

Lisa Barrie

THANK YOU SO much to Stacy and Lisa for being our Guest Designers this month. We loved your work and you provided us with such inspiration! We hope to see you back here again!

Thank you SO much to our lovely sponsors . We couldn't do this without your support!

PRIZES

The winner of this challenge, as chosen by YOU, will receive this from our fantastic sponsor Imaginarium Designs...

...a pack of their latest and most popular chipboard. The best thing about this, is that the pack will be different each month and will be customised to fit the winners needs. So if you have girls, you will be sent girly chipboard etc. And don't forget that they also sponsor our entire Design Team so please see the examples above for all the creative uses of this awesome chipboard.

There will also be a prize for the second placed winner this time, as voted by you. They will receive a set of the brand new collection from 3ndypapir. Here is a sneak peek of the collection you will be receiving directly from this Norwegian company.

There will also be 2 randomly chosen winners this month.

One winner will receive the Count Me In collection from Sassafras Lass

Our second randomly drawn winner will receive the Mix and Mend collection from Sassafras Lass as well..

Things to consider when playing along...

**This is an international blog, so anyone can enter

**You are allowed to create a card, layout or off-the-page item based on the provided sketch and additional journalling criteria. If you are creating a card or altered item you only need to include a quote.

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the bottom of this post using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

** The deadline for this challenge is midnight September 29th, Australian Eastern Standard Time .

**You may enter as many times as you like and combine this with other challenges.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The votes are in and we have the winners of the last challenge. I say winners, because from here on we have decided to choose not one , but TWO people from our 1st challenge of each month to be our Guest Designers for the upcoming month. There is no other way to put it...the level of creativity we are witnessing here in each challenge is simply outstanding. We have a high number of entries and we feel as though we could pick SO many people to be winners. I have said every time how difficult it is to choose the winners so I hope that this helps a little.

Lastly, before I announce the winners, I just want to point out how important it is that you stay very closely to the journalling criteria. Please do make sure that you read the criteria carefully as unfortunately there were SOOOO many entries in the last challenge that we had to overlook simply because they had just followed the sketch and not included the criteria.

OK! Here are the 2 winners of our last challenge. The 2 people that received the highest scores from our Design Team and will get the chance to come come back as Guest Designers in October are...

Simply outstanding work. They are both centred around neutral backgrounds, which simply make the colours pop and stand out amongst all the entries. Well done!

Now as you all know there is one prize for one winner, and that prize will go to the first placed winner which is Isay Pablo. Isay, besides winning a spot on our Design Team in October, you have also won a collection from Norwegian company 3andypapir. Isay, please contact Patti at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim you prize.

Both of you girls have also won a winners badge to display on your blogs..

Isay and Aashild, please contact Irma at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to get all the info on your Guest Designer spot for October.

Karin and Sandra, please send us an email with your address to onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim to your prizes. Lucky girls!

Lastly, our Design Team members look out for noticeable projects while visiting your blogs and commenting. This time, our Design Team member Irma, noticed the extraordinary patience shown by this girl..

At first glance, you would think that the shapes on this layout are die cuts, which means shapes cut by a machine. But to put it in Irma's words "I believe not too many people realize that that medallion and other elements are not die cuts but hand-cut three separate layers of cardstock and pieced together...WOW! that's dedication and a huge dose of patience!" I totally agree. The cutting and the patience exhibited here is to be applauded. It is extraordinary to see such skill and patience. Absolutely amazing Auksaranke. Well done!

Thank you all once again for supporting our challenges and submitting wonderful work from all over the world. We are just so excited to visit your blogs and get to know so many people...especially people in smaller countries. Its amazing to see how much scrapbooking has affected and united people from all corners of the world and all walks of life.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Hi everyone. Apologies for taking a while to announce the winners of our last challenge. Our Design Team has been busy voting and I have just added up the numbers. For the first time in a very long time the voting was so spread out and besides the winner there were SO many entries that were so close. But unfortunately we can only choose a few as hard as that might be.

Out of 76 fantastic entries, the winner of our September 15th challenge is...

Can I just say here that this layout is one of the most captivating ones I have seen in a VERY long time. There is something dreamy and whimsical I believe about this layout. Something serene and something so unique. This was one of my absolute favourites from the last challenge and I was so pleased when the Design Team chose this as the winner. Well done Fransisbeen, you have won this pack of awesome chipboard from our very generous sponsor..

We cannot wait to see what you do with this chipboard. Please email Patti with your address details at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com to claim your prize. When you have received your prize and you have started creating why not let the people at Imaginarium Designs know what you have created? You can email your work with Imaginarium Designs chipboard to us at onceuponasketch@hotmail.com and we will share your work with them. You have also won this badge to display on your blog..

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Hi everyone and welcome to the September 1st challenge. First day of September and for us here in Australia it is the very first day of spring. The weather in Sydney has been amazingly beautiful and just perfect for scrapping.

Welcome to our brand new followers! We are very excited that you are here and we hope you join in the fun. Thank you SO much to everyone that played along with the last challenge!!

So here is our September 1st challenge...

Journalling Criteria : A memorable year - Your title must be a year, and you must journal at least 2 lines on why this year is memorable for you. Examples: the year you got married, the year you graduated, the year you moved to a new house/country, the year you started a new job, the year your child was born, the year you lost someone dear. Your journalling can be in any language and any format (written, typed etc)

You must combine our journalling criteria with the following sketch...

GUEST DESIGNERS

It gives me great pleasure to announce our Guest Designer for the month of September. Please give a warm welcome to the incredibly talented..

I live in Los Angeles, California with my loving husband and our two wonderful little daughters. My girls are the inspiration for all my creative projects . . . I call them my little muses.

I work part-time as a health insurance agent. It’s the perfect part-time career because my hours are flexible and I have plenty of time to spend with my family with enough extra time for scrapping.

I started scrapbooking in September of 2004 and I have been hooked ever since. Scrapbooking is my hobby, passion and creative outlet. I always say, “It’s cheaper than therapy!” I’m a very slow scrapper, often spending several nights on one layout. I love to fuss over all the little details and get everything just right. I would define my scrapping style as romantic with a touch of shabby chic, and my pages just don’t feel complete without a flower (or two, or three or four). My work has been published in Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbooks Etc., Scrapbook Trends, Memory Makers, Somerset Memories, Cards, Simply Handmade, Scrapbook Inspirations, and Scrapbooking m.m. I am currently on the design teams for Creating Keepsakes Magazine and Prima. You can visit my blog at www.stacycohen.blogspot.com.

Now here is a project from our other Guest Designer for September, Lisa Barrie, who is our winner from last challenge.

How would you like to be our Guest Designer for October? This is the challenge where you have the chance to win a spot on our design team for the whole upcoming month simply by winning this challenge. As well as being our Guest Designer, as chosen by our Design team, you will also receive a set of the brand new collection of 3ndypapir. Here is a sneak peek of the collection you will be receiving directly from this Norwegian company.

There will also be 2 randomly chosen winners this time.

The first random winner will receive this Prima flower pack..

The other random winner will win this set of 4 complete Inkadinkado Stamps

Things to consider when playing along...

**This is an international blog, so anyone can enter

**You are allowed to create a card, layout or off-the-page item based on the provided sketch and additional journalling criteria. If you are creating a card or altered item you only need to include a quote.

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the bottom of this post using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

** The deadline for this challenge is midnight September 14th, Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the winner and the Top 5 project will be announced soon after the challenge has finished.

**You may enter as many times as you like and combine this with other challenges.

Our Permanent 2014 Sponsors. Please support them where you can

2 Crafty strives to offer affordable and versatile laser cut chipboard products to the Australian and International Craft market.2Crafty’s products are manufactured here in Australia and offer products suitable for scrapbooking, cardmaking, altered art, invitations and mixed media, and with well over 800 designs, every area has been covered.2Crafty designs are supported both locally and in the overseas market and Vanessa strives to offer the highest level of customer support, and is happy to discuss personalized orders with customers via their local scrapbooking store.2Crafty also offers a fabulous blog and Facebook page that is updated weekly with projects created from its wonderful Design Team with both local and international designers. Please click on the image to be directed to their website.

7Dots Studio

7 Dots Studio was born from dreams and for dreams. We are a European scrapbooking company. Quality of our products is our top priority. Our collections are created by very talented artists - from clean, graphic designs to mixed-media, grungy collage look. But what you can always be sure are high quality and thickness of our papers, which make them work perfectly with all kinds of media. Among our products you will find scrapbooking papers, alpha stickers, die-cut elements, collage sheets, 6x6 paper pads, element stickers and tags. We are amazingly happy and feel very blessed to see that so many crafters and artists love our designs! Please visit our blog to see awesome inspirations from our design team and our facebook profile or flickr gallery to share your projects. Please click on the image to be directed to their website

The Flying Unicorn Online store

Flying Unicorn.. it’s about One of a Kind. We offer an incredible selection of products for all paper crafting artists. Our Kit of the Month if filled with the latest and greatest and includes an off the page project to keep your creative muse flowing! Our forums, a hot and happening place which includes monthly challenges, tips, techniques and friendships that last! Please click on image to be directed to the website.

13arts

13 arts - Polish company created by Aida Domisiewcz aka Ayeeda. We provide original scrapbooking papers and mixed media products: water inks, pearl and chalk mists, water paints, many types of microspheres, acrylic mediums. We constantly work on new products to give you best scrapbooking and mixed media supplies for your artwork. Please visit our online shop (we ship internationally). Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Scrapbook Fantasies online store

Scrapbook Fantasies (www.scrapbookfantasies.com.au) is a Scrapbooking, Papercrafts and Mixed Media retailer that opened in November 2002 in Gladstone, Queensland. The well stocked store receives new stock daily, and supports a boutique style online store. The owner Alicia runs Weekly Challenges and many other competitions giving away 100’s of prizes and vouchers every year. The GALLERY hosts thousands of customer creations, and is available for viewing without login. Parcels are posted within Australia $8 flat rate. International parcels are posted at the actual postage rate. Please click on the image above to be directed to our website

Wiff Of Joy stamps

Whiff of Joy, known for it's high quality rubber stamps, supporting your creative tooth for 5 years. During this time, our product variety has grown. Metal dies, paperflowers, ribbon paper...Whiff of Joy became a one stop shopping boutique. Not to mention the great customer service and fair prices. Have a look at our range - there is something for everyone.Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Lindy’s Stamp Gang offers a large variety in products, from Stamps to Sprays and Stains to Embossing Powders and Mica Powders. Tracey does a tremendous job filling orders, shipping as quickly as possible, and listening to her customers. You can find Lindy’s Stamp Gang on FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest and Blogger! Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Die-namites Dies

Die~Namites Dies exploded onto the market in 2013. Our thin metal dies are made in America, and are compatible with most die-cutting machines on the market today. Die-Namites dies will cut cardstock, patterned paper, fun foam, wool blend felts, craft foils, handmade papers and MORE!! Shimming may be required for some thicker materials, just add one at a time and test frequently. Stop by our blog, to see what the Design Team is up to, whether it’s playing along with the monthly Die~Namites Sketch Challenge and Dare, working on a card, or sharing a Mixed Media project.